The Greatest Day in History

September 8, 2008
Historian and novelist Best, former fiction critic for the Financial Times
, offers a sophisticated presentation of the effects of the Great War's final week on its military and civilian participants. Day by day, he presents firsthand accounts from a spectrum of familiar and unfamiliar sources. On November 5, 1918, Scots Guards Pvt. Stephen Graham took part in an attack with an elite British division, while American artillery Capt. Harry Truman picked flowers to send his fiancée and contemplated running for Congress when—and if—he got home. On November 8, Evelyn Blücher, an Englishwoman married to a German prince, feared an outbreak of riots or revolution in Germany. And on November 11, Armistice Day, a crowd of Australians celebrated by storming Boulogne's red light district to the battle cry of “let's fuck 'em free!” What might have been merely a kaleidoscopic series of vignettes is given shape and focus by Best's skill at paraphrasing the narratives and synergizing the experiences of those who lived through “the greatest day in history,” knowing they had survived the deadliest war up to then—and suddenly asking, “What happens now?” 16 pages of b&w photos.

July 15, 2008
The end of World War I was a time filled with joy, despair, anger, sadness, and confusion. Here, Best (former fiction critic, "Financial Times; Trafalgar: The Untold Story of the Greatest Sea Battle in History") weaves personal accounts from the time into a broader narrative of events. All sides are represented, as are both contemporary and future leaders, e.g., the Kaiser, Churchill, Truman, and Hitler, whose histories are already well known. The value of this book comes from its detailed account of what ordinary men and women were thinking and experiencing at the time. Some were working for revolution in Germany, others were trying to imagine what peace would bring, and the soldiers were trying not to get killed before the Armistice, set for the time referred to by the subtitle. Few of these people could foresee how briefly this fragile peace was to last. Adding a new dimension to our understanding of World War I, this book can sit alongside Stanley Weintraub's "A Stillness Heard Round the World: The End of the Great War, November 1918" and Joseph Persico's "Eleventh Month, Eleventh Day, Eleventh Hour: Armistice Day, 1918, World War I and Its Violent Climax". For all libraries. (Illustrations not seen.)Daniel K. Blewett, Coll. of DuPage Lib., Glen Ellyn, IL

Copyright 2008 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2008
Bests exceedingly well-crafted panoramic overview of the last week of World War I provides many different viewpoints on the events that led up to November 11, 1918, which was christened by one of the witnesses the greatest day in history. Best casts his net widely to gather in people, including some placed at the highest levels, such as the German chancellor, Prince Max of Bavaria, who sees his countrys negotiating position disappearing in mutiny and riot, and General Rawlinson, leading the major British offensive. Future generals (Montgomery, Patton, MacArthur) are represented, as arecivilians such as Marie Curie, wondering about the implications of her discovery of radium for a future that she prays will be peaceful. The sense that the last four years could not be repeated is very strong among these witnesses, except for a certain Adolf Hitler, who feels that Germany has to try again. All expanding WWI collections need this book.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2008, American Library Association.)